John Gerard Scarangella was a 42-year-old New York City Police Officer on duty in St. Albans, Queens on the evening of April 16, 1981, when a traffic stop turned into a violent ambush. He and his partner, Officer Richard Rainey, stopped a van connected to local burglaries on 116th Avenue between 202nd and 203rd Street. Two men emerged from the van and opened fire with 9-millimeter semi-automatic handguns, firing about 30 rounds. Scarangella was struck twice in the head and was taken to the hospital; he died of his wounds two weeks later on May 1, 1981. Rainey was hit 14 times in his back and legs and survived but was permanently disabled and retired the next year.

Two suspects, identified as Anthony Laborde and James Dixon-York and said to be members of the Black Liberation Front, fled the state but were later captured in North Carolina and Philadelphia. A gun recovered at the Philadelphia arrest was later identified as the weapon used in the ambush. After two earlier trials ended in hung juries on the murder charge, both men were convicted of Scarangella’s murder and the attempted murder of Rainey in July 1986 and sentenced to 25 years to life.

Are there readers who remember the case or have additional details about the ambush, the arrests, or the trial outcomes?